Auditorium-chair.



F. F. FISCHER. AUDITORIUM. CHAIR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2T. 19!?- Patented. Nov. 20, 19171.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

lmmm.

F. F. HSCHER.

AUDITORIUM CHA APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2h 19]]. %7,5%1 Q Patented Nov. 20, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

urnn Parana opinion.

FRANK F. FISCHER, 0F OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

AUDITORIUIVf-CHAIR.

earner.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 2Q, 1917.

Application filed March 27, 1917. Serial No. 157,778.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK F. Fisonnn, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Auditorium-Chairs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the It is one of the objects of my present ln-g vention to provide an attachment for con-- verting a fixed seat of an ordinary'auditorium, opera or theater chair into a seat which may be reciprocated while in use by an auditor so as to permit the movement of persons to and fro along the narrow space in front of a seat or seats in a row behind the backs of the next row of seats in advance.

It is indeed very objectionable in auditoriums where persons are practically constantly moving to and fro between the rows of chairs or seats, this requiring the occu pants of the seats to either rise or partly rise so as to afford an increased space between the rows for this movement of the auditors, and to overcome'this objectionable necessity for arising from the seat my present invention provides means which may be readily attached to chair or scat structures already installed and in use so that the seats of the chairs may be pushed to the rear aspcrsons pass in front of the auditors who are seated in the rows.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for preventing injury tothe persons or occupants of seats in successive rows of chairs so that when the seat of the chair, as herein contemplated, is pushed rearwardly by one occupant to permit a person to pass in front of him, the chair seat at it is pushed rearwardly will be pre-' vented from injuring by forcible contact with the limbs of the persons occupying the seats in the rear.

To this end a feature of the invention consists in providing a.- eushioning bumper appropriately fixed to the rear of the seat, this bumper being adapted, if the seat is moved sufficiently far to the rear, to cushion the blow of the seat upon the occupant at the rear.

A further object of the invention is to provide a slidable seat structure which will permit the seat to he slid from a position somewhat in front of the fixed chair frame to one sufiiciently in the rear thereof to give maximum passageway in front of the occupant of the chair to allow others to pass, and which also is provided with means to automatically latch the chair in an intermediate position between its front and rear limits of movement, and in which position the chair seat is held with its front in substantial alinement with the front of the fixed .chair frame or structure. It is another object of the invention to provide such a latching means as will hold ,the chair seat yieldably in unoccupied and 'p artly retracted position, but will readily yield to permit the seatto move forwardly as soon as it is occupied, the weight of the occupant causing the chair seat to move forwardly to its limit of movement.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide an attachment which may be readily connected to chair, or seat, or bench structures which are already existent and installed, and therefore a feature of the invention consists in the provision of a pair of complementary upper and lower track members, one of which is adapted to be readily attached to the fixed frame of the seat structure, and the other of which is adapted to be as readily applied to the seat of the structure so that the latter is slidably connected to the fixed structure of the chair.

With these and other objects in view, as will be made manifest in the following specification, one embodiment of my invention is illustrated in the drawings and set forth in the following specification, in which drawmg:

Figure l is a perspective View of the attachment as applied to a chair frame which is shown in dotted lines and as attached to a jT eat frame and back illustrated in full mes. 4 Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the detached and sepapated complementary trackmembers of one pair of the attachments.

and which attachment is members by theuse of simple seat as pushed or retracted to its intermedi-' ate position and yieldingly held by its spring latch, and showing in dotted lines the rearmost position of the seat. V

Fig. 5 is a transverse section showing in detail the construction of the complementary attachable traclrmembers.

It is to be understood that my present invention contemplates an attachment for slidably connecting a seat of a chair to the relatively fixed frame members of the chair,

adapted to be readily and easily connected to the respective fastening means, and the attachment is'capable of use in combination with various forms of chair frames and seats without requiring any other alteration or change upon these members more than to provide the necessary bolt holes to receive belts or other suitable fastening means by which the attachable connection may be secured to the respective members. Therefore in the following'specification and in the drawing there is disclosed a simple form of theater chair fixed frame structure 2 of any appropriate design and proportion, and a series of these chair frames 2 may be rigidly connected in suitable organization in a row through means of a longitudinal tic or brace 3, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, and in section in Figs. 3 and (l. The present invention contemplates an attachment whereby the seat 5, which may be of any suitable construction, may he slidably connected. to the rigid frame members 2. for instance, and this attachmcntis illustrated as comprising a Set of pairs of conr plementary track members, each of which pairs includes a track member (5 adapted to be rigidly secured as by bolting, screwing, or by other means to the side member 2 of the fixed chair frameat any suitable posh tion, and preferably in an inclined plane, the angle of which will be just suflicicnt to cause the chair seat 5 to automatically move lorward under the weight of the person or occupant of lhcchair. A simple, practicable, and very inexpensive ombodin'ient of the attachment is herein illustrated in which the member 6 is shown as consisting of a substantially channel shapcd member of suitable length. and proportions. and of metal of appropriate thickness. one of the flanges of the member 6 extending upwardly .as at 7 a suitable height to provide ready application and tastening of bolts, screws or other suitable meansas 8 which may be passed through apertures 9 provided for their reception, and which are formed at suitable intervals along the upwardly projecting or wider flange 7 of the track member 6. The lower portion of this member is provided with a transverse web member 9' of sufficient width to form a space bc tween the fastening check or flange T, and a front or inner parallel flange 10 for the reception of anti-friction rollers 11 of suitable type and construction which may be provided with integral spindles 12 at their ends or may be made hollow and bemounted upon pins which may be passed therelhrough and seated in opposite apertures 13 which are provided at desired intervals along the length of the track member. The track member 6 may either be formed in a blank in flat form and suitably perforated with the apertures 9 and 13, to provide respectively for the fastening bolts and for the stems or spindles of the rollers 11, and then the blank may be folded to'the form or outline indicated in Fig. 5 so as to embrace the interposed rollers 11 when these are assembled in proper position thereon, or the track members 6 may be rolled into the proper cross sectional form and the spindles 12 of the rollers then introduced between the parallel flange members 7 and 10 and these members sprung again closed over the ends of the spindle to securely engage the same and prevent their removal. Complementary to the fixed track member 6 there is pro vided also a movable track member shown in the form of a piece of channel iron 15 of suitable length and thickness, this channel iron preferably having a. width between its side flanges substantially equal to the distance between the top of the rollers 11 and the bottom surfaces of the web 9 of the roller bearing channel member 6 so that when the traclrmember 15 is applied with its flanges embracing the rollers and the bottom of the web 9, as shown in Fig. 5, relative movement vertically as between these members is practically prohibited, these being designed to have a relatively snug sliding relation one to the other. To provide for the attachment of the movable track member 15 to the seat of the chair structure, one of the flanges of the channel member 15 is adapted to be perforated as at 16, Fig. 2, for the reception of rivets, bolts, screws or other fastening means, whereby this member may be cpnnccted in proper position to the chair scat construction. As shown in Fig' 1, the chair seat involves a suitable frame construction 26) having g back Frame 21 and a pairot' torwardly cxtendii'ig side members 22 arranged in a common plane, and to which there may be secured in any suitable manner the scat of the chair, as illustrated in dotted lines at 5. In this embodiment of my invention the slidable track member 15 is shown as secured to the parallel side members 22 of the chair seat frame 20, and this assembled organization is adapted to be mounted upon the inclined channel members 6 when these have been securely mounted in their respective positions upon the inner surface of the opposite side fixed "frames 2 of the chair structure.

To provide for the limit of movement forwardly and rearwardly of the sliding chair seat 5 upon its fixed tracks 6, any suitable form of stop means may be employed, and this is readily accomplished in the present instance by folding downwardly at the rear end of each of the movable track members 15 a lug 15 which is adapted to strike against the rear end of the fixed track 6 when the chair seat has been slid forwardly to the limit. The stopping of the sliding movement of the chair seat rearwardly may be accomplished by the provision of ad justable stop locks or'lugs as shown in Fig. 5, one of which is shown at 25 as fastened to the bottom of the fixed track member 6, and the other of which is attached to the bottom of the movable track member 15 so that upon rearward movement of the latter member its stop 26 will abut against the stop 25 on the fixed member 6 which is attached to the chair frame.

One of the important features of my pres ent invention resides in providing means for protecting occupants of chairs in the successive rows against injury by contact with a seat which may be slid rearwardly by its occupant when he desires to permit a person to pass in front of him, and to accomplish this a suitable bumper or cushion is pro vided. This cushion may be located at any desirable position upon the rear portion of the slidable structure of the chair and is conveniently disposed as shown in Fig. 3 by attachment to the downwardly turned ears or stop lugs 15 at the ends of the sliding membet-15. The bumper may consist of a cushion 27 of suitable material mounted upon a transverse bar 28 which may be secured to the track member 15 as shown.

Another feature of my invention resides in providing means for yieldably holding a seat in an intermediate position between the chair frame 2 so that as an' occupant of a chair arises to leave a seat he may push the .chair seat rearwardly into alinement with the front of the chair arm or leg'of the frame 2, as shown in Fig. 4, and thus materially increase the width of the aisle between the successive rows of chairs. This is accomplished by providing any suitable form of yieldablc latch as 30, Figs. 4 and 5, one of which is shown as secured to one of the? tracks 15, or it may be secured to any p0rtion of the movable seat structure. The

latch 30 is in the form of a spring adapted to pass over and yieldably engage the longitudinally extending brace 3Tvhich is conveniently disposed and is utilized to brace the several chairs in the row. the strength of the latching device, as 30, is just suflicient to retain the chair in its intermediate position against the force of gravity tending to cause the chair to roll forwhrdly down the inclined fixed tracks 6, and the spring is adapted to automatically yield when the seat is occupied by a person, and thus permit the chair to slide freely forwardly to its normal front position. I

When the side frames 2 are disposed radially in an are or angularly to each other, the seat tracks are, of course, set in parallel relation by appropriate connection to the frames and to the seats so as to avoid binding of the parts. This may be accomplished by the use of washers on the fastening bolts.

What Tclaim is:

1. An auditorium chair having side frames, a seat slidably mounted upon the frames, means for limiting the movement thereof to the front and rear, a brace connecting the frames and yieldable means on the seat bottom for temporarily engaging the brace and holding the'seat in an intermediate approxirnately alined position at its front edge with the front elements of the side frames.

2. An auditorium chair having side Preferably frames, a seat freely slidably mounted in an inclined plane upon the frames, means for limiting the movement thereof to the front and rear, and yieldable means for temporarily holding the seat in an intermediate approximately alined position at its front edge with the front elements of the side frames. said means operative to readily re-. v

lease the seat so that it will automatically run forward when occupied.

3. An attachment for seat structures, com prising a lower channel-shaped track member attachable to a fixed element of the.

structure, a complementary channel-shapedupper member attachable to a seat to slidably connect the seat and the fixed structure and embracing the lower member, and anti friction means interposed between said members, and journaled in the lower memher. and a stop carried by the bottom flange of the upper track to engage complementary 5. An attachment for seat structures,.comprising a channel-shaped lower track attachable by one flange to a fixed chair structure, and having transverse parallel rollers jour- 5 naled between its flanges, and a channelshaped sliding track attachable to a chair seat and adjustable upon the complementary fixed tracks so as to embrace the bottom thereof and overlap and run upon the rollers, the Web of the moving member forming 10 t a stop against lateral movement of the seat.

In testimony whereof I afllx my signature.

FRANK 11 FISCHER. 

